Flower Fascination
by littleloreal
Summary: James loves Lily, and that's all there is to it. Lily/James fluff.


**Disclaimer: I don't own anything.**

**Just a little bit of LJ fluffiness I came up with yesterday at midnight! Having a bit of a writer's block on my other stories, so juts writing oneshots for now. **

_**Flower Fascination**_

James loved Lily.

It was simple. He loved her, his precious Lily-flower. Always had don, always would do. At first he hadn't thought it was love, though.

At first, he'd been intrigued by her.

She was the mysterious little redhead with the stuck-up Slytherin friend. She was cute; she was nice to everyone, except if you got on the wrong side of her temper, which was when things got nasty. James and Sirius had found that out in the first week. No, the first _day_.

Then he was impressed by her.

She was obviously smart, as clever as James at least, and definitely more in Potions and Charms. (Although he could always say he had the upper hand in Transfiguration and Defence.) Oh, James certainly admired Lily, it had to be hard coming into this strange new world she didn't even know existed, but she'd landed on her feet.

Lily confused him too, though.

She was lively, charming, always laughing. She was up for fun, and yet she _detested _the Marauder's pranks. Maybe it was because essentially she was a good girl – a law-abiding student, perfect candidate for the prefect's badge in a few years. He still caught her smiling secretly sometimes, after a particularly funny joke.

James was in third year when he realised he _liked_ Lily.

In _that _way. Unfortunately, this was where their comfortable companionship went wrong. For James and Lily hadn't always been enemies, just never exactly friends. Yes, she had yelled at him. But she had _tolerated_ him, even smiling those lovely little smiles once in a while. But James hadn't realised this, how could he? He was confident, cocky even; after all it was common knowledge that most of the year (and the years above and below) fancied either James or Sirius. James talked to girls, he'd been out with a girl, he didn't think _this _girl would turn him down. Because, after all, everyone loved James Potter. But, as the years passed and Lily turned him down again and again (no matter how many times he enchanted library books to serenade her), getting increasingly annoyed each time, James didn't care. It made him like her more.

And then James loved her.

He hadn't meant to fall in love. No, at first it was just the challenge. James loved a challenge, almost as much as he loved pranking and Quidditch. He loved the fact she turned him down. Ok, it was embarrassing, but it would make it better when she finally said yes. She had to crack, sometime, James was sure of it. Especially with all the death stares the Hogwarts girls were giving her.

And the James matured a bit (getting older, better-looking, and wiser in the ways of women) and he really _understood_ Lily.

And he respected her.

He respected that she didn't like him asking her out constantly, and if she ever did fancy him back, she'd let him know in her own way. He realised she didn't like his big-headed, I'm-so-hard, better-than-you persona, anymore than she liked him cursing randomers in the corridors. Which was, to say the least, not a lot.

So, during sixth year, James grew up. It wasn't like he grew out of being a Marauder, more like being a Marauder grew into him. He felt like a better person. A person worthy of Lily. He dated a couple of other girls, stopped asking 'Evans' out and even stopped hexing those 'innocent' Slytherin first-years.

And when James became Head Boy, he couldn't believe it; half didn't want to believe it! Him, head boy? It was ridiculous, as Sirius had said, "some Slytherins playing a massive joke on you, come for revenge, Snivellus probably" and when it became clear it wasn't, "always knew Dumbledore was a bit odd, but this is reaching new levels of insanity!"

But James as Head Boy became James the man and he actually got along with Lily. Of course he could hardly believe his luck at actually spending time with her, looking at her, and faking nonchalance whenever she glanced over suspiciously. He was easy-going, easy to be friends with, and one day Lily came to him. And they'd been together ever since.

And James knew that now, he ought to be studying for those dreaded NEWTs, but he couldn't stop watching Lily. He loved her, every part of her. The way her dark red hair shone copper in the sun, and hung like dancing flames over her shoulders. He loved her peaches 'n' cream skin, completely unblemished except for the smattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose, like brown sugar. The way her beautiful, distinguishing eyes showed every emotion like an open book. The fact that she was five-foot-four and a half, and hated it, and that her shoe size was a 5, which she liked.

James loved her stubbornness, her charm, her ability to see the best in everyone.

Lily made James feel like a little 13-year-old again. He felt like Cornish pixies were jumping in his stomach when he spoke to her, he forgot what he was thinking about when she smiled, and his mouth went completely dry when she licked her lips.

In truth, everything about Lily Evans fascinated him.

How Lily yawned, and came over from her place by the fire. Glancing over his work she scowled, "James! You've hardly done any work!" she softened and snuggled closer, "You know, you actually need to do some revision, no matter how smart you are. Why are you so distracted tonight? Penny for your thoughts?"

"Huh?" he looked at her, confused.

"It's a Muggle saying, basically, what were you thinking about?"

"You," James smiled, wrapping his arms around her petite frame, wishing he could keep her there forever.

"Sure," she laughed, disbelieving that she could ever be that interesting (James begged to differ) and reached up to kiss him, "You're so sweet. I love you."

"I love you too," James broke away and rested his forehead against hers, "So much."

**So what do you think? absolutely love writing LJ - it's my favourite ship :) Review?**

**Thanx (:**


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